12 Foot Uhaul Towing

I’m going to be moving a bunch of household goods from NC to MI next month, and will be renting a 6x12 Uhaul trailer for the trip. Currently have a ‘22 DCLB that’s stock, I plan on doing a OTT tune prior to the tow.

Anyone done a similar trip with a 12 foot box trailer? How’d the truck do? Anything to watch out for? What was your MPG like? How much squat should I expect?

This will be the first time towing with the Tacoma. Previously did a similar trip with a Frontier and a F-150 but we all know those have more HP and torque than the Tacos do.

 

Done a similar trip in Ontario Canada from Peterborough to Kenora a 1200 mile trip through the Northshore of Lake Superior a very hill/small mountainous areas. Fully loaded 6x12 uhaul and truck bed. My ‘17 DCLB did fine just follow the manual, S mode in 4 in hilly areas 5 on the flats and TCS turned on. Yes the engine will scream going up big hills but this is a high revving engine. Done other similar trips as well hauling cars, sleds, ATVs, truck has 140,000 miles and is as happy as day one. This truck and my previous Taco never let me down when asked to tow writhing the 7500lb limit.

 

It’s going to depend on how much the contents weigh, those things are nearly 2k lbs empty.

 

Hello fellow PTBO-ite lol.

 

Did the same thing last year, only shorter trip. You will notice a lot of squat. Those trailers have a lot of tongue weight. Gas milage will drop 8-10 mpg depending on how fast you drive. Yes, use S mode or it will be continuously shifting gears and it will be screaming on hills. These engines don't have a lot of low end torque and need to Rev a lot to make the horsepower. It will do fine, just may be a little different than what you're used to.

 

Just pulled a loaded 12' Uhaul 3 weeks ago. I pulled it thru the mountains of upstate NY. It did pretty good. Definitely shifted a bunch on the hills but using S-mode and limiting the transmission to 5th on flat runs and 4th in the hills made it fairly smooth. I couldn't comment as far as transmission temps but I don't think things got very hot. You should be fine as long as you have a little experience towing. I got the transmission temp gauge on the torque pro app to work so I'll use that on future towing trips. Would no be a bad idea to get a temperature gauge for your transmission before you go. I'm in the market for an RV and after towing the UHaul I'm going to keep things right around 3000 lbs just so future trips are comfortably doable. If you think you should get gas just get it. The small tank does not go very far pulling a trailer. Plan gas stops in advance if you're unsure.

 

They are heavy for sure. Mine was full of furniture lots of books so pretty heavy, plus the full bed. As for tranny temps there is a warning light for high temp. Would be nice to know before that though. ;-)

 

Pulled one about 1300 miles out west a couple years ago. Absolutely packed every square inch of that thing. Probably was pushing the payload of the trailer. Bed was full too.

Squat wasn't too bad. 1.5-2 inches. Having an adjustable trailer hitch helped here to keep the trailer at a good level.

MPG was 10-12. But headwind and going uphill west. The auto transmission might do better MPG than the manual I've got. As mentioned earlier, planning fuel stops is a great idea. I picked all my stops before leaving. Never went further than 155 miles between fill ups and didn't have to deal with stations where getting a trailer in would be difficult.

Truck handled it just fine; plenty stable. Power was sufficient and the surge brakes on the trailer seemed to work well. Can't comment on anything auto transmission related, but I'm guessing a lot of S4 is in your future.

 

bluetooth OBD dongles and apps are cheap and easy now a days. I have one and haven’t even towed anything crazy,,,, camper idea for nixed w the silly ass inflation and camper craze,,,, don’t want one that bad haha